October 31, 1981
by LukeAndLorelai Brucas Fan
Summary: "Prongs! Are you here?" The stairs leading up to the second level, where he hoped he would find his two dear friends, were severely damaged and difficult to climb. But he managed and as he crossed the charred floorboards he heard the boy cry.


AN: Umm... Ok. Well, I've been thinking about HP for weeks now. Obsessively. After successfully completing my mssion to watch all 8 films before the end of 2011, I started to reread the books, and wanted desperately to write something. When Hagrid was drunkenly ranting about the night of the Potters deaths, I knew what I had to do. Enjoy!

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><p>The smoke was visible from miles away. Glancing out a second storey window of the Tonks family home, Sirius Black had seen it – the huge cloud, tinged with green, floating in an otherwise clear night sky.<p>

He knew it couldn't be anything good and he jumped off the bed he'd been sitting on, and raced down the stairs, taking them two at a time.

"Siri?" a voice called from the kitchen, footsteps coming towards him. "Is that you?"

He stopped a few feet from the front door and turned back to face the young woman with dark blue hair that reached her shoulders.

"What are you doing?" asked his cousin, Nymphadora Tonks.

"I ah… I need to go and see… I think there might be something wrong."

"At the Potter's." she didn't need to guess. The list of people that could get him this worked up was extremely short, and at that moment, James, Lily and Harry Potter where at the very top.

"I won't be long, I just have to make sure," he told her, reaching for his cloak as she came forward and did the same.

"I'm coming with you."

"No, Dora. Stay here. It might be nothing. They'll probably send word any minute now. I'll be back soon." He squeezed her shoulder affectionately and leaned in to kiss her cheek before fastening his cloak around his shoulders and racing out the door.

"Be careful." She whispered as the door slammed behind him, a feeling of dread filling her entire body. She had an awful feeling that would be the last time she was going to see her cousin for a very long time.

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><p>The number of times that he had flown his motorbike from either the family home on Grimauld place, or that of his favourite aunt's to the Potter's cottage had gotten so high that it probably wasn't considered a number anymore. He no longer needed to look for landmarks or even pay the slightest bit of attention to where he was going; it was almost as if the bike knew - they were going home.<p>

Sirius did watch below where he was flying this time however, and frequently looked about for the green cloud, tracking its journey in regards to his own. The wind and the cloud were moving in the direction opposite of which he had come, and with a sinking heart he realised that it was very possibly coming from his exact destination.

When he found where his best friend's lived, he let the motorbike fall from the sky and come to a halt out on their front lawn.

Or, what had once been their front lawn.

For the Potter cottage no longer stood where it had the last time he was there, just one week ago. Instead there was just a smoking crumbling frame of what had once been their beautiful home.

Shaking his head in disbelief, Sirius staggered forward, towards a hole that resembled their front door desperately hoping it was only their home that had been destroyed.

"JAMES!" he screamed, stumbling over the debris that littered the ground. "LILY!" There were no sounds of reply, but he refused to believe they were gone and continued his travels through the ruins of there once lovely home.

"Prongs! Are you here?" The stairs leading up to the second level, where little Harry's room was and where he hoped he would find his two dear friends, were severely damaged and difficult to climb. But he managed and as he crossed the charred floorboards, towards the infant's room, he at last heard the boy let out a cry.

Harry was alive.

And if Harry were still alive, that meant that his parents had to be as well - being only a year old, there was no way Harry could ward off an attack from Lord Voldemort that his parents had been unable to prevent.

"Lils? Are you up here?" he called, carefully picking his way down the hallway to his god-son's bedroom. Sirius froze in the doorway, his mouth hanging open and his stomach doing a flip.

Lily lay on the floor, motionless, and deaf to her son's cries. It almost looked as if she were asleep, except that she was twisted at an odd angle and blood was trickling from the side of her mouth.

"Lil, oh Lils…" Sirius chocked back a sob as he stared into the pale face of one of his best friends.

The cries from the basinet by the window got his attention again and Sirius gingerly stepped over Lily and lifted the distressed infant.

"Shh…" he rubbed Harry's back, trying to shield them both from what lay on the floor. "Shh, Harry you're ok, you're ok. We're going to be ok."

A crash from downstairs had Sirius shift the infant who was now sniffling quietly and whip out his wand. Holding Harry tight to his chest he silently crept through the house, stepping down to where he heard… a man moaning James' name.

How he hadn't noticed before he couldn't say, but Sirius now saw his best friend, his brother, lying in a heap on the kitchen floor, while Rubeus Hagrid took up most of the room, great tears running down his face as he too stared at the great friend, dead long before his time.

"Hagrid…" Sirius spoke quietly, so as not to startle the giant, but it didn't work. He had to try again. "Hagrid!"

"Whossat?" demanded the big man, looking about wildly. "Oh, Black it's…" he trailed off when he saw the bundle in the smaller man's arms. "Is'at…?" he took a few steps forward careful not to disrupt anything. "Little Harry. Is Lily up-"

With a short shake of Sirius' head, Hagrid burst into a fresh batch of tears.

"I don't know how, but somehow Harry managed to survive." Sirius explained through his own tears. He didn't want to look at James, but couldn't not look at him either.

Hagrid took the child from his god-father and Sirius suddenly felt empty as if he had nothing in the world worth living for. He needed that child. He knew the other man was just checking to make sure the baby was unharmed, and when he let out a loud curse, he also knew that was because he'd just seen the fresh lightning bolt scar on his forehead.

Sirius took a futile look around the room, knowing there was nothing that could be saved as Hagrid babbled on about Dumbledore and a relative in Surrey.

"Give him to me," Sirius requested, turning back to the huge man who now blocked James' body from view. "Give me Harry."

"Dumbledore's orders, Sirius. I have to take him to his aunt and uncle's."

"Petunia's," Sirius realised.

"Dumbledore's waiting there now."

"No. No. I won't allow it." Sirius replied. "Lily would never want her son to grow up in that house with those… They are the worst kind of Muggles. Harry wouldn't survive there."

"It's what Professor-"

"Give the child to me. Give Harry to me Hagrid. I'm his god-father. I'll take care of him."

"I've got me orders and I-"

"You know this is a terrible idea. Leaving him with people who know nothing about our world, who have no idea how to protect him. Dumbledore is a brilliant man, but he's wrong about this, you know it Hagrid. This is the right thing to do, I know you now that too. He will understand." He added as the giant opened his mouth, looking between the baby and the man desperate to have him.

"I'm not so sure I-"

"You can tell Dumbledore I put a curse on you, perhaps the leg-locker curse. You will have managed to shake it off after a few moments of course, but it was enough to stun you and allow me to get away with the boy. I'll contact him and explain everything when we're safe, but I will not leave this house without that child."

Holding his wand defensively, Sirius pointed it towards the other man's knees.

"He won't be happy about this." Hagrid muttered, bundling Harry up once more and taking a step forward.

"I daresay he won't but that's a risk I'm willing to take. Tell him I'll be in touch." Sirius added, carefully shifting the infant in his arms. "Goodbye Hagrid."

"S'long Sirius. Take good care o' that boy now."

"I will protect him with my life, just, as I'm sure, his parents did."

With his god-son held tightly to him once more, Sirius climbed back on top of his large motorbike and tapped it with his wand to start it up.

What he wanted most of all now was to go and track down the Potter's Secret Keeper, Peter Pettigrew. But since he now had Harry in his possession he couldn't risk anything happening to him. If that meant allowing the former friend to hide for the time being he was going to have to allow it.

But he knew he would see Peter again and he would make that worm pay for his betrayal.

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><p>Love it? Hate it? Review? Anyways thanks for reading.<p> 


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